Jeesh, it is a separate network, not a new "internet". People writing technical articles should collaborate with technically skilled people prior to submitting articles. More often than not, they go with option 2 and look foolish to people with technical knowledge. *sigh*

It was probably up and running all of 47 seconds before the obligatory Frist Post arrived.

NASA points out the distinction between this network and the internet:

From NASA: "The core of the DTN suite is the Bundle Protocol (BP), which is roughly equivalent to the Internet Protocol (IP) that serves as the core of the Internet on Earth. While IP assumes a continuous end-to-end data path exists between the user and a remote space system, DTN accounts for disconnections and errors. In DTN, data move through the network "hop-by-hop." While waiting for the next link to become connected, bundles are temporarily stored and then forwarded to the next node when the link becomes available.

It seems they are paying attention to security, planning for compromised networks, and non-trusted segments, and it is designed to includea number of applications including: sensor networks, mobile devices, use of data mules, military communications which involve stressed disconnected and disrupted networks, along with space-based store-and-forward networks.

That store and forward bit is key, and would be very nice to have here on Earth, if one could find a way to bolt it onto the existing internet. Currently the closest we have is Email and Cellular Text Messages for this type of stuff. Having been cut off from a remote server due to storm damage with only intermittent contact, I can see where it would be nice to have such capability. (To say nothing about political turmoil where governments try to shut down the net.)

Perhaps you should work on your karma a bit, my karma is excellent so I get options to post before most users. Er wait, everything that happens that you can't understand must be a bot right? Or better, it had to be the submitter that did it... there is no other reason for people to post early.

I didn't mention the security of the network, it's logical. I worked in DOD for nearly a decade, I get security and separation probably better than most. My complaint was that the wording used is completely incorre

The ISS, as far as I can tell, already has access to the Internet. This is a new set of routing protocols designed to be more useful over intermittent and high-latency links such as those present in space.

The article is correct, the DSN has just a couple of letters in common with DTN, and nothing to do with the Bundle Protocol.

Delay/Disruption-Tolerant-Networks have been researched and developed by the DTN Research Group [dtnrg.org] and the Bundle Protocol has been an RFC [ietf.org] since 2007. It's possible to download an open-source reference implementation from SourceForge [sourceforge.net].

Well, it's probaby so that they can say that they tested the system with the same type of latency-lag that an Earth-ISSorbit / Earth-Space telcom link would have. Of course, they could have done the same demo with everything on Earth just by introducing the lag into the telcom lines anyway. But hey, it's talking to space! Just like all of the new fangled patents and inventions that say we'll do XXyyZZ on the internets as if changing the telcom medium really changes it. C'est la vie.

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a timewhen humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a fivedollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. Aswell as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashingface -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notionof the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point whereany single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human couldadjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough -- so Adell and Lupovattended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could.They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that wereissued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share In the glorythat was Multivac's.For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabledman to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth's poor resources couldnot support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited itscoal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally,and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-widescale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switchthat connected all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at halfthe distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managedto escape from the public function, and to meet in quiet where no one would think oflooking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mightyburied body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazyclickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They hadno intention, originally, of disturbing it.They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relaxin the company of each other and the bottle."It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it,and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsilyabout. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted todraw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss theenergy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever."Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to becontrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the iceand glassware. "Not forever," he said."Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert.""That's not forever.""All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Twenty billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?"Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that somewas still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Twenty billion years isn't forever.""Will, it will last our time, won't it?""So would the coal and uranium." "All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and itcan go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about